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I am looking for a reliable hassle free way to have guests let themselves into my building & elevator without using my fob.
Im looking into selective call forwarding / conditional call forwarding but have not found a solution yet for my buzzer. I would like to have my buzzer’s phone number be temporarily forwarded to the guest’s phone number (instead of to my cell number) so they can buzz themselves in. After their departure, I would switch it back to my cell.
Any comments on selective forwarding or other options to negate a fob?
I have no idea what you are talking about??? Please explain more, I doubt most people are aware of a ‘buzzer’ that only works via a message to your phone? What do people do with more than one person in the home? How do you register your numbers? Are you locked out if you lose your phone or its flat? Sounds problematic
It’s not a perfect solution but I hear there are cafes that can keep the fob for you, and then guests go into the cafe to grab it from the restaurant staff.
This might be a happy medium. No clue how to do call forwarding on a buzzer since I didn’t know such a thing existed in the first place.
Forgot to mention, I already checked into the cafes, there are none in the city. I did put in a request to keycafe a while ago but i doubt they will open any locations.
There are some new services available for this particular problem. Basically, you have the phone number in the call box changed to a service providers phone number, which opens the door to all sorts of cool stuff.
There’s even a service that integrates directly with Airbnb and will automatically send your guests unique codes to use. These require no hardware modifications and don’t require your building’s involvement other than to change the phone number one time.
Services Using Existing Hardware
DIY Service - Use Twilio & Zapier to create your own [free] solution.
EveryDoor - No pricing provided. You have to setup a demo.
Key Cafe - they offer to setup with a local coffee shop if you give them the address and contact information.
City CoPilot - offers key exchange in addition to luggage service, delivery, airport transportation
Key Lockboxes
Realtor Lockbox - find a place to hang or mount one of these. I have one in an adjacent parking garage’s stairwell which works fine. Igloo Smart Box - $169 bucks but allows for codes, bluetooth and automation Rock Lock - very promising if it ships. Pre-order for only $59.
Please note: There’s also mention of smart buzzers on this thread.
I signed up for RINGO and got it all set up today. This is LIFE CHANGING for those of us in buildings that have to ‘buzz’ people in! What you do is sign up for the RNGO service $6/month, and they give you a local phone number, you give this number to your building manager, so that when someone ‘calls’ you from the building entrace it rings to the RINGO number, then the magic happens! The RINGO number picks up and says ‘Hi, please enter your passcode…’ once the passcode is correctly entered the gate/door is buzzed open! You can make passcodes valid for certain dates/times or always valid. The best part is you get a text message every time someone is let in, so you can remotely monitor the situation. Thanks again @Steven_Talbott for telling me about this!
@azreala, thanks for reporting back on your experience with the service. Obviously, I had looked into a solution but hadn’t actually pulled the trigger on any of them. Now that I know about your life changing experience, I’ll definitely sign up!
I very quickly pulled the trigger bc our gate keys cost $100 and Im sure you can see where that leads when a guests misolaces one.
I looked at a few of the options you wrote about and Ringo was the least painful. Only small downside, could br out hardware, is if you type the numbers two fast Ringo gets confused. He always asks you to reenter though!
I’m curious about why the building manager needs to be involved? When the guest calls the Ringo number, can’t they just enter the passcode without the manager’s involvement?
The guest isn’t calling the Ringo number. The guest is using the building’s buzzer code, which the manager programs to call the Ringo number. If the guest were to call the Ringo number directly, the door wouldn’t be able to be opened.
Assuming this is a common-entry setup where you have no access to the actual door lock? I’ve spent a while researching https://www.erentallock.com, until basically building my own.
For common entry phone forwards, perhaps you could just link the dialed number to Google Voice, then script a way to reconfigure the forwarding number there to go to tenant versus you for the time period they’re staying?
Great info here. It’s Oct 2021 - any updates on condo fob alternatives? It would be great if there was a one-step system. Love to hear suggestions/experiences.
